Police are now treating the death of a young man found in an abandoned car on the side of a dirt road as a homicide.
Emergency services were alerted to the death after a passerby discovered the 21-year-old in the backseat of a 2003 silver Subaru Forester on Webb Rd in Woodstock, south of Townsville, about 8.45am on Saturday.
Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd said the death was being treated as a murder and a murder weapon was being sought.
“It’s very sad that we now have a family that will spend Christmas without their son, we want to try to bring closure to that family,” he told reporters.
“This young individual has never had any involvement with law enforcement before,” Shepherd said.
“We are looking for a weapon that could have been used, as well as other evidence discarded by the perpetrator.”
He was last seen with a 26-year-old friend who was arrested that same morning on unrelated charges.
Police have released an image of the vehicle and are appealing for anyone who saw it or the man on the night of December 13 or the following day to come forward.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a 21-year-old man was found dead in the backseat of a car abandoned on a dirt road south of Townsville (pictured)
SES crews, armed with metal detectors, have continued to search the area near where the car was found for a weapon.
Police said the car was spotted “driving erratically” on Friday evening before the deceased’s friend was lifted by a truck driver the following morning.
He was dropped off in nearby Calcium, where he reportedly got into a B-double truck and drove it for about 10 meters before being taken out of the cab.
“He is clearly a person of interest but we cannot rule out that a third person could be involved,” Det Insp Shepherd said.
“Everyone who had contact with him that morning indicated that he appeared to be under the influence of some kind of substance.”
However, police do not expect the same substance to appear in the 21-year-old’s toxicology report, which has yet to be released.
Search efforts for more evidence will be extended to Dingo Park Road, where the friend was picked up.
Investigators and SES crews, armed with metal detectors, searched the area to discover any evidence left by the dead (pictured)
Anyone with a dashcam driving around Webb or Dingo Park Roads at the time was urged to contact police.
“It’s very important that we try to establish a timeline of the movements of the victim and his friend on that Friday evening, Saturday morning,” Det Insp Shepherd said.
“We can put the victim and his friend at the vehicle at different times throughout the night, but we just really want to tighten their movements.”
He added that there was a particular interest in information beyond the current investigation.
“Someone may have seen another vehicle, or they may have seen another person. If so, we really need him to come forward.”